“The Blue Sheet” Vol. 36, no. 8

February 24, 1993

"The Blue Sheet"

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foreigners constitute a public health risk. She also opposed the provision in Kennedy's amendment that
would have given the president the authority to rule on
the immigration issue, thus bypassing the Congress.
Attempting to refute the cost argument forwarded
by Nickles and his supporters, Kennedy asked: "If they
had such concerns about all of the costs taking
place...why [are] we not talking about the costs of renal
failure or cancer?....People with those conditions can
come" to the U.S.
Kennedy argued in favor of leaving the question of
HIV immigration policy up to the public health agencies. For example, he stated, "we do not permit even
temporary visits by people with tuberculosis...because it
is a Public Health Service determination. That is what
we should be interested in."
Under the adopted Nickles measure, HIV-positive
aliens would be allowed temporary entry into the U.S.
in order to attend educational or medical conferences;
receive medical treatment; visit family members; conduct business activities; or for short term vacations.
The HIV immigration amendment was one of
several changes to the bill approved by the Senate after
two full days of debate. Sen. Larry Craig's (R-Idaho)
amendment, passed by voice vote, would require the
secretaries of HHS and the Department of Energy to
conduct a study on the reliability of the supply of radioisotopes, which are used in cancer diagnosis and
therapy.
Kennedy To Hold Hearings On Foreign Access To Research
In addition, an amendment offered by Sen. William
Roth (R-Del.) and passed by voice vote would charge
the NIH director with "defining how to improve productivity, reduce the cost and increase the availability of
health care technology." The director would make recommendations in a report to Congress, and the Labor
and Human Resources Committee would hold hearings
on the findings.
The Senate also adopted two amendments proposed
by Sen. Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.); one would create
a "pilot sentinel disease surveillance and follow-up system" for "identifying the relationship between the occupation of household members and the incidence of subsequent conditions or diseases in other members of the
household."
The second Durenberger amendment would require
the HHS secretary, through the Institute of Medicine or
another public or nonprofit private entity, to "develop
criteria or methodologies which members of Congress
may use to assist and inform them during consideration
of allocations for biomedical research."

After some debate, Sen. Richard Shelby (D-Ala.)
withdrew an amendment dealing with foreign corporations' access to research results generated by institutions
which receive NIH or National Science Foundation
funding. The Senator agreed to the withdrawal after
receiving an assurance from Kennedy that his Labor and
Human Resources Committee would schedule hearings
on the subject.
The NIH reauthorization bill for fiscal 1994, introduced on Jan. 21 by Sen. Kennedy, would authorize
$2.2 bil for the National Cancer Institute, $1.5 bil. for
the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and $500
mil. for the National Institute on Aging.
The major provisions of the bill, including the
reorganization of NIH's Office of AIDS Research and
the expansion of research on women's health, remain
unchanged.
S 1 would codify President Clinton's lifting of the
ban on federally funded fetal tissue transplantation research using tissue from induced abortions and establish
statutory safeguards for such research ("The Blue Sheet"
Jan. 27, p. 3). The bill would also end the de facto
moratorium on federally funded human in vitro fertilization research ("The Blue Sheet" Feb. 10, p. 2).
Other provisions in the legislation would provide
statutory authority for the NIH Office of Research on
Women's Health and establish the Office of Research
on Minority Health. A program also would be implemented to recruit and provide research training to women and individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.
A children's vaccine initiative included in the bill
would authorize $20 mil. in FY 1994 funds to develop
"affordable new and improved vaccines" for children.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases' mission statement would be expanded under
S 1 to include research on tropical diseases. In addition,
the NIAID director would be directed to establish centers for basic and clinical research on chronic fatigue
syndrome...:. RESEARCH. PO:ICY
MANAGEMENT OF PROSTATE CANCER IN ELDERLY SHOULD
BE CLINICALLY EVALUATED - NCI'S BRUCE CHABNER
A workshop to establish guidelines for a clinical
trial assessing managment of asymptomatic prostate
cancer in the elderly should be convened, NCI's Division of Cancer Treatment Director Bruce Chabner told
DCT's board of scientific counselors at a Feb. 22-23
meeting.

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